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Timeline of Arlesdale Railway
The Arlesdale Railway (affectionally known as the Small Railway), is a miniature gauge railway that runs from Arlesburgh to Arlesdale on the Island of Sodor. 1966 * The North Western, Skarloey, and Culdee Fell Railways each draft a plan to build a railway to mine ballast from Arlesdale using the route of the defunct Mid Sodor Railway, which closed down in 1947. * Building of the railway begins. It is relatively fast as the rails are simply laid where the MSR rails once stood. * Six engines are purchased. Three are steam engines: Rex, Bert, and Mike, (the trio are affectionately dubbed “the smallies”), and three are Diesel engines: Frank, Blister I and Blister II. * Fergus Duncan, longtime employee of the Sudrian railways and namesake of both Fergus and Duncan, is selected to be the railways controller. He is dubbed “The Small Controller“, despite the fact he is taller than all three of the other controllers. * The railway’s ballast mining industry begins. Donald and Douglas collect the ballast using the old Arlesburgh Branchline. Their explanation for the small engines spread rumors about them being magic. 1967 * The railway is opened to passengers. Duck promises he will bring many passengers. * The Reverend W. Awdry decides to write about the smallies in a book. * Awdry visits the railway to take reference photos for his illustrators. Accomping him is Reverend Teddy Boston, who films the smallies for a BBC documentary. * The two accidentally splash Bert with mud while driving. Bert gets back at Boston showering him in steam, however in doing so, is punished by the small controller. However Awdry and Boston clean Bert up and promise he will be featured in a book and on television. * Mike manages to loosen his whistle while getting cross. When a cow strands on to the line, Mike gets so cross he loses his whistle cap. the driver, guard, and passengers whistle for him the rest of his journey. * The railway is contracted with collecting wool from farmers along the line. Rex takes the first train of wool, but due to the careless actions of a dimwitted farmer, Willie, he crashes. However he is praised by the passengers for preventing a serious accident, and the railway is dubbed a Useful Railway. * The book is published. Frank, angry about not being included, crashes into the back of the shed. * During a blizzard, Blisters I and II are left stranded outside all night. They are named after this, however they don’t mind. 1969 * A new diesel arrives, The Sigrid of Arlesdale. * The engines assist in finding Duke. 1976 * Bert, having weak tubes, pulls his train using glue as a substitute for couplings. * A new engine (Jock) is built, painted a yellow undercoat. Douglas says the coat reminds him of the Caledoinian engines known as Jocks, and the engine keeps this name and his color. * Bert leaves to be rebuilt in a similar manner to Henry. Jock takes over his duties. 2011 * Mike crashes into the back of Frank while trying to find a farmer's lost sheep without a headlamp. 2013 * After Mike crashes into some cermet, which fell out of Jock's train, he had to make the journey back to Alesbrugh by road. 2015 * The engines assist in the construction of the branch line and the foil of pirate Sailor John’s plans. As a reward for this, the railway is featured in [[Thomas and Friends] for the first time. 2017 * A tree falls on top of Jock after it got struck by lightening. Sigrid had to bring workman with chainsaws and axes to free Jock. * Mike does Jock's work while he is at the works. Category:Timelines